Subject: Re: Reference to JDS by Paul Thomas Anderson
From: Jim Rovira (jrovira@drew.edu)
Date: Wed May 08 2002 - 23:44:00 EDT
Nah, you're taking the discussion out of context. I did mention the
context up front, but after a few replies it's easy to lose sight of
that.
The context was that a talk show host asked me why Salinger wasn't so
important to academia. She asked me that because I was a token
representative of academia on the show. Being a token representative of
academia on the show, I didn't get a whole lot of airtime ;). I think I
was asked two questions, and that was one of them.
But going beyond that, which authors academia considers important IS
important. I agree it's not ALL important, but it has its importance
and its place. What teachers teach as "literature" becomes a standard
in society whether we like to admit it or not. And we pretty much ALL
go through this system, at least through HS, so this omnipresent POV
does indeed have its effects.
That being said, OF COURSE people will pick up, read, and enjoy any dang
book they please REGARDLESS of what they're taught in school. But to
say what schools are doing is irrelevant is a bit of an exaggeration. I
don't want to exaggerate academia's importance, but I don't think it's
wise to underestimate it either. They have us by the cajones from the
age of 6-17, at the least, here in the States. We should pay attention
to what they're doing.
I would like to add that the American Unviversity English Department
that's "headed exclusively by white males" is a thing of the past. I
think white males in charge in these departments is quickly becoming a
matter of nostalgia. Women in humanities graduate programs typically
outnumber men. The ratio at my school is about 60-40, and that ratio is
pretty closely reflected in faculty as well.
The department chair last year was a white male, but before him it was a
white female, and next year it will be a black female (who also won the
Distinguished Professor award this year -- and I got to present the
award. yippie! I got to stumble over my words in front of the whole
graduate school :) ). It just doesn't make sense to characterize the
typical English department as **both** "PC obsessed" **and** headed by
white males. If it was PC obsessed it wouldn't be headed by white
males.
And when it is, the white males feel terribly guilty about it :).
I would like to add that it wasn't American academia that was opposed,
primarily, to the publication of Joyce's Ulysses. It was the
publication industry, the printers, newspapermen, book reviewers for
magazines and newspapers, etc. Academia and people of letters didn't
necessarily understand it, they complained about it, but I don't think
they would have advocated censorship of it. It's been a little while
since I've read up on this, but it seems like the people going to the
post office to have copies seized weren't coming out of colleges and
universities.
I'd tend to disagree that the most interesting discussion I've had about
books has ever been on any listserve, but honestly, the word
"interesting" tells me nothing -- except about the personal preferences
of the person using it, which is usually meaningless to me, being
different from my personal preferences :). What's interesting to me is
what I'm concerned about :).
Jim
Cecilia Baader wrote:
>
> --- Jim Rovira <jrovira@drew.edu> wrote:
>
> > So on the one hand we have
> > problems with Salinger because of what Will said -- if a white male late
> > 20th century author is going to be selected, Salinger won't be first
> > pick. But they're not selected that often to begin with...
>
> <begin rant>
>
> The issue that I have with this discussion is that the underlying argument
> seems to be that if a work isn't discussed in American University English
> departments (headed almost entirely by white males, I might add), it isn't
> important. Bollocks. It's faulty reasoning to assume that the best
> intellectual inquiry arises solely in the land of the section men. In
> fact, I'd argue this: far more interesting, and far-reaching, discussion
> occurs on this list than in any PC-obsessed English Literature class I've
> ever had the misfortune to attend.
>
> Ask yourself this: how many foreigners on this list read The Catcher in
> the Rye at their universities because it is considered the quintessential
> American novel?
>
> Another thing: James Joyce's Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake couldn't be
> published in the United States until decades after they were written
> because they were considered "obscene" and banned, yet once the moralists
> were defeated and the community of academia got over itself, both novels
> found themselves at the top of most lists of the best fiction of the
> twentieth century and the subject of more scholarship than surely any book
> deserves.
>
> And speaking of such lists, I challenge you to find one that doesn't
> include The Catcher in the Rye.
>
> </end rant>
>
> Regards,
> Cecilia.
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! Shopping - Mother's Day is May 12th!
> http://shopping.yahoo.com
> -
> * Unsubscribing? Mail majordomo@roughdraft.org with the message
> * UNSUBSCRIBE BANANAFISH
-
* Unsubscribing? Mail majordomo@roughdraft.org with the message
* UNSUBSCRIBE BANANAFISH
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Fri Sep 27 2002 - 17:14:12 EDT